spring clean!

I mentioned to a woman I work with that I would be cleaning out my wardrobe this weekend, and she nodded wisely and said "Mmm. Clears the mind".

This is the entire contents of my wardrobe. Minus shoes and accessories.

4pm.
I started 3 hours ago and I'm about half way through. I got off to a good start, all energy and lets-get-through-this attitude. I pulled the stripy bags out of the shed (where most of my clothes have been living for 3 months, uninterrupted). Once I had everything piled on the bed... energy started to wane... it was easy enough to get a "keep" pile going, full of things I wear all the time. The maybe pile was huge. Like, twice the size of the everything else. Scarily big. This was when I flagged, and started checking facebook and texting people for help. Just when I'd started sooking to my housemate about it, my lovely boy turned up with a mini-quiche and a raspberry macaroon for my lunch! Perfect timing. While I was munching I realised that looking at all the clothes I no longer wear but cant get rid of was depressing me. I feel guilty getting rid of them, but cant bear to look at them any more. It makes me feel clogged and down and too heavy in the stomach to do keep them, but I also have this "But I always wanted a fake fur chubby...... this jacket is soooo nice, even if its a little short.... maybe I should hold onto this dress, its black, everyone needs a black dress..... I bought this at a concert.....aaaaaaaarrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh".

And now, I have a pile of Things-To-Try-On before going further. I have an Out pile, which is continually growing. And my Keep pile has stayed relatively stable, which is important as its made up of the things I actually wear all the time. Here are the questions that are keeping me from moving forward now: How many black skirts do I need? Is it worth keeping dresses cos they would be good on a hot summer day? What if it belonged to my dad, who never wears it, and I thought it would be awesome but its really just an oversized, heavy, beige mans cardigan? What if its a divine, supremely lovely Cavalli silk skirt, but you've only worn it twice in..... ummm..... at least 2 years, maybe 4?

5pm.
Bored and looking at online catalogues for a new fridge. Need to try on about 20 items to decide on which pile they belong. Cbf.

7pm.
Have tried on all "maybes". Only put one in the "no" pile. (the mans beige cardigan). This is not enough. So now I'll go through the pile and assess it using the three questions I found on Apartment Therapy in a nice closet organising post:

Do I love it?
Is it flattering?
Is it the image I want to project?

I've covered the flattering issue by trying them all on.... the tough ones are still to be covered. Will I ever wake up in the morning wanting to wear a pink floral patterned, high waisted, full a-line skirt? I doubt it. But I might!

herein lies the next problem.

Further steps to be taken include: sorting "No" pile into "Opshop" and "ebay" categories. Leaving this post here for the time being though. But rest assured the bed is a lot clearer now than in that photo up there.